Get Out
by lizzabet
Summary: Someone locked them into the basement and there's no way out. All they can do is to wait for someone to find them, but why isn't Mr. Dilaurentis coming home? And where the hell are the girls?


**Title: **Get out!

**Summary: **Someone locked them into the basement and there's no way out. All they can do is to wait for someone to find them, but why isn't Mr. Dilaurentis coming home? And where the hell are the girls?

**A/N: **I rewatched PLL and it still bugs me that we never got to see the moms get out of the basement. There are some fanfics about it but just short and with humor, so I decided to write a serious one instead. I've changed some of what happened just because I can. I don't know how long this will be either. I originally wanted to do a one-shot, but I think A messing with the moms too could be worth exploring. And I love Ashley Marin so I might do a few stories centered around her because there aren't many of those.

Anyway, here comes the first chapter...

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Chapter 1

Ashley Marin knew going down to the basement was a bad idea, just barging into another person's house was too, but there was no way of stopping a drunk Veronica Hastings when she had set her mind on something. This whole thing was probably better to resolve when sober with everyone's mind clear. Besides, they were supposed to supervise the girls on their own prom, to make sure nothing happened. A lot had been going on lately, many questions had gone unanswered, and the four moms found trusting them a lot harder nowadays. They didn't believe they would ever do something illegal, but someone was obviously targeting them to make their lives hell and they would never explain who or why. She'd also found herself in the crossfire with the whole Wilden story, but thankfully whoever wanted to frame her hadn't counted on an eyewitness.

"He's not here," they told the other woman who was charging through the house like a madman.

That's when they heard something from the basement and Veronica decided that's where Mr. Dilaurentis was. And the other three decided that the best thing to do was to follow her downstairs. When all four women had started to descend the stairs, the door was suddenly slammed shut. Pam was the first one to feel the handle and to everyone's horror, the door was locked. The women started to bang as hard as they could, trying the handle over and over again as if it would just magically open the fourth time they tried.

"Mr. Dilaurentis?" Veronica yelled, hoping that the creaking floorboards on the main floor was the sound of the slightly older man.

What they weren't sure about was if this was intentionally or if the wind had caused the door to slam shut.

But who were they kidding? With everything else going on in their and their daughters' lives, this was definitely something more than just the wind.

"This isn't going to work," Ashley finally said and took a few steps down from the door.

"What do you suggest?" Ella asked, turning her eyes toward the redhead.

"There has to be another way," she said, her voice barely above a whisper as she turned to run down the rest of the stairs.

The other three women stopped their banging and followed Ashley down to see if there was some other way out of this place. No windows could be seen, which wasn't unusual when it came to basements, and as far as they could see no hidden doors. There was something that looked like a vent, but how would anyone fit inside?

"Help me get this off," Pam said and started tugging on the vent cover.

"There's no way you're going to fit in there," Ashley pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh, I'm not going," she said, through gritted teeth as she continued to pull on the rusty piece of metal. "You're the smallest."

Ashley shook her head, imagining just what kind of animals and bugs lived in there, but if the other woman somehow managed to get it open, she knew she would at least have to try to go through, just to see where it led. They still couldn't be sure the vent was their way out.

"Do you think Mr. Dilaurentis locked us in? For just going inside like this? Or Jason? I know they have a lot of secrets that they don't want anyone to find…" Veronica pondered out loud.

Ashley wouldn't put it past Mr. Dilaurentis, but Jason would never do this. He was a sweet boy who wouldn't harm anyone. He had just been caught in the middle so many times. She was just about to say something when a loud thud could be heard as Pam got the cover for the vent open. A satisfied smile spread across her lips and she looked at Ashley, telling her to go ahead. The redhead groaned and bent down to check inside the air vent. Cobwebs and darkness was all she could see, but still she crawled inside, moving forward as far as she could.

"Do you see anything?" Ella asked.

"It's dark," she said, simply. "But I don't think this leads anywhere." She frowned and used a hand to feel forward. The further inside she got the hotter she felt. Was she getting closer to a room with actual heating? She inhaled deeply and froze. Smoke. That was definitely smoke. And where there's smoke, there had to be a fire. She started to back out, feeling a drop of sweat run down her forehead.

"A little help please!" she yelled to the women behind her as she could feel herself getting warmer and the smell of smoke stronger.

A pair of strong arms pulled at her ankles and she finally touched ground, allowing herself to breathe again.

"Are you okay, Ash?" Ella asked, concerned.

"Don't ever make me do that again," she sighed and tried to brush off her dirty clothes. Ella reached out her hand and pulled out the cobwebs stuck in her hair. "Thanks."

"So are you gonna tell us what happened?" Veronica asked after a moment to allow Ashley to catch her breath. "It was a dead end?"

"You could say that again," Ashley scoffed and looked between the women, a serious look on her face. This was bad. Much worse than they'd originally thought. Whoever was messing with their girls had most likely locked them into the basement and could easily crash the prom. "Either the house is on fire or someone lit a fire at the end of that air vent."

To her surprise Ella started laughing and shaking her head. "You can't be serious," she said and sat down on the third step of the stairs. "There's no fire in this house."

"Yeah, Ashley, I think the cramped space really got to you," Veronica said and put a hand on the redhead's shoulder.

Ashley's eyes moved between the women and she could see that none of them believed her. Why would she make up something like this? Or had she imagined it? No, there was definitely smoke in the vent system. Someone wanted to stop her from reaching the end, which they succeeded with, and therefore lit a fire. Now the question was who had locked them inside and how the hell were they going to get out of there?


End file.
